Canned Salmon and Fresh Homemade Apple Salsa

Well the inspiration for this was... ahhh I'm hungry and need something really really fast to make!

Ingredients:
can of low sodium salmon
a heaping tbsp of greek yogourt
raw veggies cut up into small cubes (what ever you have around) I used tomatoes, celery, cucumber, orange pepper
1/2 apple
lemon juice (well I didn't have lime)
cilantro
garlic
dollop of olive oil 
drizzle of balsamic vinegar

In the winter:  I cheat!  Mixed veggies, apple, cilantro, garlic, oil and lemon juice together. Let sit.

See the greek yogourt and the lemon in the background.  (I mixed the salmon and yogourt together)

Top salmon with salsa, drizzle with balsamic and enjoy.

Family Skating

Oh you would not beleive the effort that goes into 30 minutes of skating.  Seriously first you need to round up the troops, and convince them that going out into the cold is a great idea... Not that mama is really thrilled at the prospect, however the alternative is the continued systematic trashing of the house... lesser of two evils I guess.  So now that you have about 2/3 of the kids convinced, the other one is refusing to put on pants, much less the snow pants that need to go on top.  "Have you gone PEE???" is a question that can be heard about a dozen times during the process of getting everyone ready.  And finally 2 kids are ready and outside, one baby is bundled up, BUT doesn't fit in the car seat... which needs to be adjusted, and the potty training two year old is half dressed but refusing to wear a hat or mits.  Uggghh "fine, no hat, put your hood on, and we will get your mitts on when we get to the rink."... Closely followed by,  "I'm peeing..."  By this point mommy is fervently praying to GOD to give her strength.  Undress, "make sure it's IN before you pee.." Ok get dressed, strapped into van and OFF we go.

Pay for parking, convince the kids that we are actually here to skate and not play at the park, put on skates, watch the zamboni do it's thing and set kids on ice.  Wow that was fun, skating lasted a few minutes before one kid didn't want skates on anymore and wanted to play at the park.  STOP!!!!  ask a perfect stranger to take a picture as evidence that we did, in fact, bring our children skating!!! Ok now skates off one kid, the other kid is still on the ice with dad.

So now, I've got a baby strapped to me, a boy who wants to play at the park anndddd a two year old who is telling me he peed his pants...  I said "opps that was an accident, it's ok, lets go play"... Ohhh no, the two year old HAD to sit on the toilet.  Sooo convince the boy, who is happily playing on the jungle gym, that he needs to go to his father, literally 2 minutes after starting to play... right!!!   That done, take the two year old to the "potty", while still wearing baby... Ohhh soo much fun I've had up until this point.  On my knees in a public washroom... sooooo not as kinky as I once would have thought.  That done, go back to the park and play for about as long as we can handle... about 5 minutes.. It's really is getting cold now!

Gather the troops and GO HOME!!!!!  

And see photographic evidence off all the mania...

Getting skates on the two older kids, Patrick is watching the Zamboni,( thankfully not running off)

Family shot I had to have... to prove that we actually did this!

Annaliese skating! 

Mama wearing baby!

Two year old who, in fact, did actually pee in the toilet and not in his pants. 

This Moment

Juicing my cold away!

Well Friday night I could feel some slight sniffle coming on, but like in the past I've been able to fight it off, however... this time the stupid bug caught me.  Pesky little bugger!  My morning wasn't too bad, I took some tylenol with my oatmeal and eggs and brought Annaliese to her gymnastics.  I was still surviving pretty well until we put the kids down for their nap.. and bang!!! I was hit.  I had a spinach protein smoothy for my lunch and took a nap.  I was still feeling pretty crappy so I just hung out in bed for most of the day...Sigh!!!! Why is it as a mom the only time I get to be lazy is when I'm really sick, ps my insides had also turned to water.. and I was having major cramping... I hoped this wasn't the beginning of a flu bug, because I also had a headache.  So at this point I ramped up my defenses' by adding loads of squeezed lemon in my water and making green juice to sip on.  I also had some tuna and cherry tomatoes for diner. 

A good night sleep and MAGIC!!!!

Today other than a funny voice and a little runny nose, I feel really good.  Here is how I made my green juice.

Ingredients: 1/2 english cuc., 1 apple, 1 lemon, 7 stalks of celery, a bunch of kale.

I quarter my apple and it goes in seeds and all.

Same with the lemon, peel and all!

This is the pulp after running it all through the juicer once.  I will run it through again!

The pulp and the juice left from all those lovely greens and fruit.

Take that Cold!!!!  

And just in case you don't think it tastes good!!!  Check this out. 

OOoohhhh Yah!!!  That's my boy.   He loves it!

Jen's 11 questions for the meme

First of all I don't even know what a meme is..I guess that makes me a meme virgin. but my friend Jen tagged me and since she is such an awesome friend I thought I would give it a try.  The one on her blog was absolutely brilliant, it had different questions... I think that means I have to make up my own questions and someone else can answer them.   Is that right Jenifer Filipowich ?

And here are Jen's random questions:

1. If there was a movie made about your life, which celebrity would play you?
Madonna.  (that was to easy)

2. What were you like in high school?
A bit of a nerdy-jock.  I got good grades, was on the school counsil, did a ton of volunteer work but also "liked to party like it was 1999 (actually I was still in high school then), I was a swimmer and wrestler.  I balanced study hard with play hard!  Just ask my parents... cops showed up at our house...(which by the way, past the middle of nowhere, about 50 miles north) because a party got way too wild). 

3. Which character in Star Trek: the Next Generation would you be for a day?
The boss... the bald one?  Does that count.  I like to be "in charge".  I honestly couldn't answer that because I have never watched any Star Trek... All I know is that people throw stuff at you when you mistake Star Wars for Star Trek...

4. Karaoke?
insert alcohol and press play.

5. In the fictionalization of your life, are you the hero or the villain?
So the hero... I think I should already have a costume made!!!  seriously if you know me at all I am like the super hero for health and fitness!!!  Humm I think my costume would be green!  The colour of kale! With cute yoga pants.

6. Vampires or zombies?
Vampires, always vampires... they are soooo sexy!  I was in grade 6 the first time I read Anne Rice, (which is quiet possibly why I was always in trouble when I got to high school..) the vampire chronicles. - memo to self, make sure I read the books my daughter is reading... media my ass, that is not how I learned '' um" how to get into trouble-

8. If you could have a pet dinosaur, what kind of dinosaur would you get?
Oh please no pets!!! I have 4 kids. Ok if I have too... Ashdown maniraptoran 

9. How do you picture yourself in the future?
Like Madona or Tosca Reno. I want to be as healthy and fit as they are when I'm their age.  And I also want to have the conviction to live the way I want to, without succumbing to societies pressure to conform...

10. Dogs or cats?
Dog!

11. Favourite youtube channel?
I don't understand this question...  I thought youtube was something you searched random topic and saw clips of what people posted. 


Ok so now I'm supposed to come up with 11 random Questions ...   


1. Real Christmas tree or fake?
2. Would you have picked truth or dare?
3. Which of the three bears would you be, from Goldilocks?
4. If you could "order" more copies of your spouse, the 2.0 versions... how many would you get? and what would the upgrades be?
5. If you were a radio dj, what would your "radio name" be?
6. If you fall in the toilet at a public washroom ( because the seat was up), what would you do???
7.  Last meal?
8. Would you rather freeze or burn?
9. Dark or milk chocolate?
10. If you had to describe yourself as a pc/personal device (ex.desktop, netbook, ipad, blackberry) what would it be?
11. What is your super power?

Annaliese's Art

I've heard a few mom's mention how everyday their kids pull out "half tree's worth of paper" from their backpack.  Oh I know all about that!!!   And I used to struggle with what to do with it all, put it on the fridge... ha ha!!! that worked for the first couple of years, but now with 3 kids bring home arts and crafts the fridge can't handle it all.  And if you have seen the size of my house, saving it all is not an option.

 So some of it get's put up, some of it get recognition and once the kids go to bed it gets stuffed to the bottom of the blue box (you don't' ever want to be called on - throwing your kids work out), and finally some of it gets immortalized via the digital camera.  It's a win-win, they feel pride that we are capturing and appreciating their work and I get to occasionally see that my fridge is in fact white!

Annaliese made this little paper puppy for her brother and named it Sal, the name of Luke's best friend...

Our family!  (on the Rt: Grand-maman - my mom, Deda - my dad, Ian-my baby bro, Jason - my other bro)  She clearly did this on her own, seriously she is that cute.  Did I mention she's only 5!!!!!

I'm not really sure what that extra yellow "leg" is for, I'll have to ask her!  But look!!! the nose is sooo cute!  I said look at the nose!!!!  (not the yellow straw)

my peanut

This is how the chores got done today!  Her little belly was sore and would only settle being smooshed up against me.  I think I know how she feels.  Today is day 2 of cooler plan 1 and my stomach is bloated and I have a head ache.  It's amazing this is the second time I "detox" so to speak since she was born and I do remember last time she got really fussy also.  I am nursing her full time so it makes complete sense that my milk composition is changing.  I am also finding it rather amazing that I'm actually detoxing, even though I really didn't eat that much crap during my "off weeks".  Because even during those off weeks I was still following cooler plan 2, with the addition of a bit of alcohol.  I guess it all adds up.  Last time I did cooler 1 I lost 13 pounds in 2 weeks, but the first 3-4 days I totally felt like crap.  I'm hopeful that I'll only feel like crap today and tomorrow will be a good day!

This Moment

GF raw peanut butter brownie (vegan, sugar free and dairy free)

      The secret to these delicious brownies is the simplicity of their ingredients. The base is chick peas, dates and peanut butter.  Then everything else is just bonus. 

Ingredients: eden chick peas, natural organic peanut butter, whole dates, vanilla, cocoa powder, unsweetened shredded coconut and chia seeds.

 

 

 

 

GF raw peanut butter brownie recipe
10 pitted medjool dates
1 drained and rinsed can of Eden Organics chick peas (garbanzo beans) 
1 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
2 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup chia seeds

I started by adding the pitted dates, chick peas and vanilla and processed them first, then I added the natural peanut butter and made sure it was very well mixed together then I added the cocoa powder, chia seeds and coconut.  Make sure you process it till all ingredients are blended well together.

Press into a dish or...

Make them into little bites!

This Moment